Category Economics

Following a 0.93 percent rise in January 2023, the Everyday Price Index (EPI) rose 0.67 percent in February 2023. At 282.6 (1987 = 100), AIER’s EPI is at its highest level since July 2022 (285.4). Among the EPI constituents, the…

For some time now, political pundits and activist academics have hung onto the mindset that anything that is big, especially if brought on by a merger or acquisition, is bad. Corporate concentration seems to raise red flags from both Republicans…

When I introduce my (mostly) freshmen students to the economics of international trade, I steal an idea that I learned from David Friedman and Steve Landsburg. I start by showing my students a picture of Thomas Edison. I then ask…

The Biden Administration’s 2023 budget bill made headlines by proposing a so-called “billionaire tax,” imposing a 25-percent minimum rate on the “unrealized capital gains” of the wealthiest Americans. The Biden measure rests on an economic falsehood. The new proposal rests…

As these things tend to, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has given rise to a host of wide-ranging discussions. Again comes a long weekend of fear and conjecture, so familiar to anyone remembering Lehman weekend, the guiding of…

The acronym ESG (representing environmental, social, and governance criteria for investment and business metrics) gained mainstream attention in 2020, and has since been political fodder for those wishing to weigh in on wokewashing matters.  The backlash over ESG has been…

AMC Theatres recently set its sights on blockbuster profits when it launched Sightline at AMC, a ticket-pricing system based on a seat’s view of the theater screen. The Twittersphere had mixed reactions to the company’s plan, with some arguing that…

AIER’s Phil Magness joins AIER Senior Editor James Harrigan and Antony Davies on the Words & Numbers podcast to discuss how the 1619 Project gets the history of, and the relationship between, slavery and capitalism wrong. This is the second…

On January 25th, I wrote about the increasing borrowing activity taking place at the Fed’s discount window. I commented that, despite popular perceptions, not all the borrowing at the discount window is driven by emergencies. But I also added that…

In a recent article at Axios, Neil Irwin asks why interest rate increases haven’t tamed inflation. Inflation remains high despite eight rate-hikes by the Fed over the past year. The latest personal consumption expenditure price index (PCEPI) data shows the…